Tags work best when they’re useful at the level of an individual note. Updated May 8, 2022 When you use tags, they spread. They want to appear everywhere. And appearing everywhere, we tend to have a global, top-down organization, process, or governance for the tags we use. …

Updated Sunday, May 8 and Saturday, April 20, 2022 Like many of us, I spent some time at the start of the year looking for ways to improve my personal productivity. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this. I’ve been on a long journey to find an approach that’s…

A brief introduction to the secret weapon of networked note-taking applications This is one of several posts on backlinks. There’s this super basic intro to backlinks, a post on understanding and navigating your backlinks, and another on using backlinks to generate information. …

Note-taking apps have ways they want you to work, a grain you should follow. Except Obsidian. Obsidian’s grain comes from you. — Updated May 8, 2022 This might sound odd, but Obsidian isn’t a note-taking app. On its website, the Obsidian team describes the app as “a second brain” and a “powerful knowledge base”, as well as an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for text files. And an IDE for text files isn’t…

Think about like the last two workshops you attended. They probably started with a brainstorm. This makes sense. Each of the workshop’s other activities require fuel for their engines. You need inputs, and if you don’t walk in with inputs, then you have to generate them. As facilitators, we use…

Some thoughts on the emerging need for more information architecture Jorge Arango posted a fascinating article about the world’s longest, continuously running company, Kongō Gumi: “Founded in Japan a mere century after the fall of the Roman Empire, it survived extreme changes in Japan’s culture, government and economy, preserving traditional…

Some thoughts on growing user experience’s influence “For those still fighting the good fight for hearts and minds, influencing how that meaning gets defined is now the heart of the challenge.” — JJG A couple things hit my feed this weekend: UX is a shithole, visual designers caged UX inside…

Some thoughts on UX and Product Management The difference between UX and Product Management has confused me ever since Product Management really exploded as a job title. When I read Product Management job descriptions, I think, “that’s what I do, and I’m UX.” This isn’t the first time. I’ve been…

Some thoughts on how to improve collaboration for better outcomes A favorite story of mine: One nice day, three craftsmen laid brick for a wall. A priest on a stroll stops to appreciate their work and asks what they’re doing. Says one bricklayer, “we’re building a school”. The next day…